The present invention relates generally to archery equipment and, in a preferred embodiment thereof, provides unique bow hand wrist brace apparatus which is adjustably securable to a bow handle and functions to stabilize the bow body against undesirable pivotal movement thereof during string draw and release.
Particularly when an archery bow is provided with a relatively high draw weight (the rearward string force required to flex the bow body to its fully drawn position), various undesirable torques are imposed on the bow body as the bow string is drawn and then released. These torques manifest themselves about the archer's hand which tightly grips the bow handle and include first and second torques which tend to rotate the bow handle in opposite directions in the archer's hand, about a generally vertical axis, as the string is respectively drawn and released, and third and fourth torques which tend to tip the upper bow limb toward and away from the archer during string draw and release, respectively.
Each of these string force-related torques tends to undesirably affect aiming of the arrow, and the accuracy of the arrow's flight path, and additionally can strain and flex the wrist of the bow holding hand. In the past, various proposals have been made to compensate for these unavoidable bow torques.
Perhaps the most common approach has been for the archer to hold the bow handle with an open-handed grip such that the fingers of the bow holding hand extend along one side of the bow handle generally in the direction of arrow flight, with the bow handle being received in the crook between the thumb and first finger. When the arrow is released, the resulting string shock drives the bow forwardly out of the archer's bow hand without tending to twist his wrist. Since the open bow holding hand cannot effectively exert a counter torque on the bow during either string draw or release, the bow handle simply finds its own balanced position in the hand during string draw.
To keep the bow from simply falling to the ground when the arrow is released, a variety of flexible sling loops have been utilized, such loops typically being secured to the bow handle and being looped over or under the archer's wrist such that when the bow springs forwardly from the open bow hand upon arrow release the sling loop "catches" the freely moving bow. Flexible sling loops of this type, while not intended to counter bow torque, can, if suitably tightened between the bow handle and wrist offset bow "tipping" in one direction (depending upon whether the sling is looped over or under the archer's wrist). They cannot, however, counter the other three previously mentioned types of bow torques. In fact, it is considered by advocates of the open-handed handle grip technique to be undesirable for a flexible sling of this type to exert any torsional counterforce on the bow.
While this open-handed grip technique is, when used by an experienced archer, a highly accurate shooting method, it is a somewhat unnatural method of holding a bow handle and many archers (particularly bow hunters) prefer to tightly grip the bow handle when shooting. This grip, however, transmits the four previously mentioned types of bow torques to the bow hand wrist, tending to flex it and thereby lessen aiming and shooting accuracy.
In view of the foregoing, it is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a device which will enable an archer to tightly grip a bow handle with a closed hand without causing a significant amount of the previously encountered bow torque-related shooting inaccuracies.